St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-04-03
Lower. Higher.
VENTILATING SCHOOL HOUSES.

1t is pity that in a world full of pure
air so many of the human race are COM
PEELED to exist. or rather to die. in foul
atmosphere. And it is still more singular
that in world full of humane people so
many of us should practice the most
malignant species of refined cruelty toward
those whom nature and association have
given the most claim on our sympathy and
humanity. Pitiable and singular though
these things be. they are lamentably true.
We find daily illustration of it in the prac-
tice of crowding our children into badly
ventilated school houses where they Are
compelled to sit day after day, suffering the,
fortunes of a lingering DEATH We impose
this punishment upon ourselves every Sab
bath when we congregate in church build
ings and for two hours inhale vicious,
blood poisoning element. We shut our leg
islators up for sixty consecutive days in
musty halls, where the brain grows weary
under the depressing influence of Initiated
air, and then we complain of the bad char
acter of legislation that is turned out. All
this is done in spite of the fact that the
good God has i'll no particular been more
prodical in the display of His bounty than
in the abundant supply of pure. fresh air
which is supplied in this world and which we
go to so much pains and expense to deny
ourselves of.
At no time is the importance of an abund-
ant supply of pure air so necessary as during
the growing period of life. Of the factors
necessary in building healthy human
body, none is more important than pure
air. Good air to the body is what the rain
is to the parched earth. 1t gives life to the
blood coursing through the veins, and re-
news the wasting tissues of the body. As
the rain dissolveS the chemical compounds
in the earth and shapes them to be absorbed
by the roots of the growing plants in like
manner the blood carries nutrition to the
body. Good air plays an important part in
this process of body building. Good food
makes good blood, but in making a circuit
of the body thousands of little pores are de-
posting into this pure stream of life poison
Gus matter in the shape of dead particles
from the system. The blood goes into the
heart thus charged with poison. From
thence it is sent into the lungs to be filtered
Here it is exposed to the action of oxygen
from the air; the carbonic acid gas, which
is largely the air form of decayed animal
tissue, takes the place of the oxygen in the
lungs and is thrown out by respiration.
Then the purified blood returns to the heart
and starts a fresh circuit to replace the
drying tissues. This is natures simple pro-
cess for giving health and tone and strength
to the system. But we deliberately go to
work to defeat nature in its aim to make
healthy men and women of our children by
herdng them together in close rooms. from
which pure air is excluded, and compel
them for hours each day to breathe over and
over again the poisonous gases which ma
ture has taken the pains to drive out from
their systems The average modern school
house is nothing more than an establish
ment where poisonous gases are bottled to
be used in planting the germs of disease in
children. Is it any wonder that the child
grows restless in school and becomes mat
tentive to his lessons, when his little lungs
are yearning for more oxygen to purify the
blood of the poison which is consuming his
body? Even his instinct tells him that a
good run in the fresh air would be tonic
worth more to him than all the learning
contained in the books on his desk.
We have dwelt on this matter at some
length in order to convince school boards of
their imperative duty to provide school
houses with proper ventilation. We know
that to shut fifty or sixty children up in all
unventila.ed school room where they
breathe over and over Initiated air, foul
from eXhalations from the lungs and from
the pores of the skin, is as surely means
of slow poisoning as any plan that chem
list could suggest. More recently school
boards have been giving this subject more
careful consideration, and it is gratifying to
observe that it is being investigated in the
light of scientific principles. The oldfash-
toned notion that the way to ventlate a
building was to let down Il window or open
a door, Is NOW ont of date. The draughts
created III this WAY. especially in cold